Re: signalling errors in redisplay

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

> That is a very good idea.  If that buffer is not redisplayed any more,
> you can still save it and kill it.  And the rest of Emacs will still
> work.  The disabling of redisplay in the buffer could last until
> it is again modified--that way, you could easily try to resume normal
> redisplay of the buffer if you want to try it.
> 
> Does anyone see a problem with this, or have a better idea?

This would leave the user in the dark.

I think that it should still be possible to `display' the disabled
buffer - however, rather than trying to display the actual buffer
contents, the effect should be an window showing a message like this

        THIS BUFFER CANNOT BE SHOWN DUE TO INTERNAL PROBLEMS
        You may still save and try to modify the buffer

Having a window ``showing'' the buffer allows the user to save the
buffer using the normal commands.